Sunday, September 30, 2012

George,
aka "Suds," has just entered third grade, and he's heard the rhyme
about "first grade babies/second grade cats/third grade angels/fourth
grade rats," but what does this mean for his school year? It means that
his teacher, Mrs. Simms, will hold a competition every month to see
which student deserves to be awarded "the halo" - which student is
best-behaved, kindest to others, and, in short, perfect.

Suds is
determined to be the first to earn the halo, but he's finding the
challenge of always being good to be more stressful than he had
anticipated. Does he have to be good even outside of school? (Does he
have to be nice to his annoying little sister?) And if Mrs. Simms
doesn't actually see him doing a good deed, does it even count?

Fourth graders are tough. They aren't afraid of spiders. They say no
to their moms. They push first graders off the swings. And they never,
ever cry.

Suds knows that now that he's in fourth grade, he's
supposed to be a rat. But whenever he tries to act like one, something
goes wrong.

Can Suds's friend Joey teach him to toughen up...or will
Suds remain a fourth grade wimp?

The author ofDirt and Oak brings to life this quickest, most sustaining, most communicative element of the earth.

Air sustains the living. Every creature breathes to live,
exchanging and changing the atmosphere. Water and dust spin and rise,
make clouds and fall again, fertilizing the dirt. Twenty thousand
fungal spores and half a million bacteria travel in a square foot of
summer air. The chemical sense of aphids, the ultraviolet sight of
swifts, a newborn’s awareness of its mother’s breast—all take place in
the medium of air.

Ignorance of the air is costly. The artist Eva Hesse died of
inhaling her fiberglass medium. Thousands were sickened after 9/11 by
supposedly “safe” air. The African Sahel suffers drought in part because
we fill the air with industrial dusts. With the passionate narrative
style and wide-ranging erudition that have made William Bryant Logan’s
work a touchstone for nature lovers and environmentalists, Air is—like the contents of a bag of seaborne dust that Darwin collected aboard the Beagle—a treasure trove of discovery.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

When Mira receives a cryptic postcard from her missing mother, she
sets off with her father and brother to find her in Paris. Only Mira
doesn't know she's looking in the wrong century.

With an innocent
touch to a gargoyle sculpture on the roof of Notre Dame, Mira is
whisked into the past. There she learns her mother isn't just avoiding
the family, she's in serious trouble. Following her mother's clues, Mira
travels through time to help change history and bring her mother home.

"Long
after I finished this fast-paced and compelling novel, I thought about
Mira. Would I be as determined in pursuit of truth and tolerance? Would
you?" --Karen Cushman, Newberry Medal Winner

Charlie Joe Jackson, the most reluctant reader ever born, made it his
mission in the first book to get through middle school without reading a
single book from cover to cover. Now he's back, and trying desperately
to get straight A's in order to avoid going to academic camp for the
summer. In order to do this, he will have to betray his friend, lose the
girl of his dreams, and end up acting in a school play about the
inventor of paper towels. Charlie Joe's not exactly the "school play
kind of guy", but desperate times call for desperate measures.

When several notebooks were recently
discovered among Frida Kahlo’s belongings at her home in Coyoacán,
Mexico City, acclaimed Mexican novelist F. G. Haghenbeck was inspired to
write this beautifully wrought fictional account of her life.
Haghenbeck imagines that, after Frida nearly died when a streetcar’s
iron handrail pierced her abdomen during a traffic accident, she
received one of the notebooks as a gift from her lover Tina Modotti.
Frida called the notebook “The Hierba Santa Book” (The Sacred Herbs
Book) and filled it with memories, ideas, and recipes.

Haghenbeck
takes readers on a magical ride through Frida’s passionate life: her
long and tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, the development of
her art, her complex personality, her hunger for experience, and her
ardent feminism. This stunning narrative also details her remarkable
relationships with Georgia O’Keeffe, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Rockefeller,
Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Henry Miller, and Salvador Dalí.
Combining rich, luscious prose with recipes from “The Hierba Santa
Book,” Haghenbeck tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose life
was as stunning a creation as her art.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Julia Child entered the lives of millions of Americans with her bestselling cookbook,Mastering the Art of French Cooking; her popular and long-running cooking show, The French Chef; and her beloved memoir, My Life in France.
In this intimate and revealing biography, based on exclusive interviews
and scores of private letters and diaries, Noel Riley Fitch leads us
through her incredible life.

We travel with Julia from her
exuberant youth in California to her raucous days at Smith College; from
her volunteer service with the OSS during World War II to the day she
met Paul Child, the man with whom she would enjoy a fifty year marriage.
We’re with her when she takes her first culinary course at 37 and
discovers her true calling; when she begins work on her landmark
cookbook and suffers the rejections of most publishers in New York. And
when finally her vision strikes a chord with a generation of Americans
tired of bland cuisine, we’re there to share in the making of a legend.

Julia
Child became a household name by resisting fads and narrow conventions,
by being the quintessential teacher and an inspiration to modern women,
and by doing it all with her trademark humor and aplomb. Appetite for Life is her truly remarkable story.

Joe says:

"One hundred years and one month ago now, Julia McWilliams
was born in Pasadena, California. Her grandparents had headed west in
the 1840's
and that pioneering, adventurous spirit was most definitely passed down
to
Julia. She would live in India, China, France, Germany and Norway, as
well as
both coasts of the United States.

Her pioneering spirit affected more
than just
where she lived. It propelled her to tackle American attitudes on food,
to
essentially change the way we cook, eat, and think about food. When she
became
a celebrity based on her cookbooks and cooking programs on PBS, she
became the pioneer behind what is now a multi-billion dollar food
entertainment
industry.

Appetite for Life, originally published in 1997 and now
updated
with the information released after Julia Child's death, is the most
thorough
biography I have read about the First Lady of Food. Noel Riley Fitch was
granted full access of letters and diaries by Julia Child herself, and
with
that information really brings to life Julia's early days in Pasadena,
at Smith
College, and while working for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) during
WWII.
It was during this time that she met the man who would become the great
love of
her life, and together they formed what I think is one of the most
loving
partnerships ever.

Her devotion to Paul Child took her to Paris, where
she
began her culinary education. His devotion to her helped sustain and
energize
her throughout the rest of their lives. And though I've read (&
loved!) other biographies
on Julia Child, I don't think I've read one as thorough. Not only the
part we're so familiar with (either from watching her on television like
I did, or other books or movies), but the nitty-gritty of her life as
she wrote the books and recorded the shows. Her life before and after
Paul. Her youth and college days.

Riley Fitch shows such
detail in Julia's young life. It was from this foundation (wealthy &
healthy stock) that Julia Child really blossomed as an adult. Julia
never
forgot her wealthy upbringing, but didn't dwell on it either, except to
rebel
against it. She knew she was lucky to be able to travel and never forgot
that
not everyone can live the way she did.

Although Riley Fitch's affection
for
Julia Child shines in the book, the writing never devolves into mere
hero
worship. If Julia is to be admired, it is on her own terms, and the
writing
lets Mrs. Child speak for herself, with her wit, charm, decidedly
anti-Republican liberalism, and most of all: her famous and natural
humor. I
have long admired Julia Child, and thought I knew her well. But by
reading Appetite
For Life, I feel like I really know her. And thanks to Noel Riley
Fitch, love
Julia Child all the more.

Julia Child has been done a deep service by
this
book. I would say this book belongs on your cookbook shelves, right next
to
your well-worn & stained copy of Mastering the Art of French
Cooking. If
I could compare this book to one of Julia Child's recipes, I would say
this is
her Bouillabaisse: from such humbleness, the divine is present, thanks
to a
little saffron, a lot of laughter, and a
bubbling froth of utter joy in life. Bon Appetit!"

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her
parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her
computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she
wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no
memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her
side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance,
Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a
shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a
terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence
her for good.

Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret

Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.

Now
Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and
to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard,
not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is
worse.

But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who
are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy
she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's
done. If only she can forgive herself.

I should not exist. But I do.

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven
together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they
learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did
the worried whispers. Why aren't they settling? Why isn't one of them
fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their
parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and
Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn't. . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life.
Only Addie knows she's still there, trapped inside their body. Then one
day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks
are unimaginable—hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they
are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet .
. . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

There
was something about Ellie…Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken.
Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her
distance—and kept watch.

Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah,
and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are thirty-four
clues she left behind. Thirty-four strips of paper hidden in a box
beneath her bed. Thirty-four secrets of a brief and painful life.

Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie,
and all three have secrets of their own. As they confront the past, they
will discover not only the darkest truths about themselves, but also
what Ellie herself had been hiding all along….

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a
thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently
wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one
another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy
Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her
parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her
three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself.
Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands,
no child comes away undamaged.

Tandy decides that she will have to clear
the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs
is a dangerous-and revealing-game.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ever since Prue McKeel
returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother
from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. School
holds no interest for her, and her new science teacher keeps getting on
her case about her dismal test scores and daydreaming in class. Her
mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of
Wildwood, where her friend Curtis still remains as a
bandit-in-training.But all is not well in that
world. Dark assassins with mysterious motives conspire to settle the
scores of an unknown client. A titan of industry employs inmates from
his orphanage to work in his machine shop, all the while obsessing over
the exploitation of the Impassable Wilderness. And, in what will be
their greatest challenge yet, Prue and Curtis are thrown together again
to save themselves and the lives of their friends, and to bring unity to
a divided country. But in order to do that, they must go under
Wildwood.

Author Colin Meloy, singer and songwriter for the band The
Decemberists, and acclaimed illustrator Carson Ellis, will read from and
sign their new book Under Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book II, the eagerly anticipated sequel to Wildwood.***Free
numbered tickets for a place in the booksigning line will be handed out
at 6:00 pm. Seating for the presentation prior to the booksigning is
limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis to ticketed
customers only. Colin will be happy to sign one piece of Decemberist’s
memorabilia per person with the the purchase of a Wildwood book.***

The searing, riveting debut novel about young women coming of age in
the military, from one of the most promising literary talents of her
generation

Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together
in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of
caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the
universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the
army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women
they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain. Yael
trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching
refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a
checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by
her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more
violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment
that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just
before danger erupts.

In a relentlessly energetic voice marked by
caustic humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu creates a
heightened reality that recalls our most celebrated chroniclers of war
and the military, while capturing that unique time in a young woman's
life when a single moment can change everything.

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square
and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town
at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at
war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is
not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes
the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph
in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected
revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancyis J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

"This book
tells the story of two soldiers' who served in Iraq. To say it is powerful,
haunting, and memorable seems inadequate for this stunning debut novel.

Two young soldiers, Private Bartle (18) and Private Murphy (21),
are sent to Iraq with the same unit and stationed in Al Tafar. Immediately immersed in a bloody battle for
the city, surrounded by death and destruction, they follow orders, protect each
other, and do everything they can to stay alive. Responsibility becomes a key issue - exactly
what are a soldier's responsibilities beyond the orders. When reading some of
the battle scenes, or the scenes in the village, I could almost hear them
because of Powers' exquisite description - the artillery, children in the
streets, dogs barking the commander shouting orders, the cries, the Humvees
engines, and the explosions. This novel is stark, beautiful and gut-wrenching.

As we find more about Private Bartle's emotional upheaval after
he returns home, we see he doesn't fit in his former life. Nothing fits;
nothing works, he has too much guilt, too many overwhelming memories. He can't
function. We see the never-ending
military machine pursue him; pursue a truth, relentless in its search for a
justice that will close an official book. Bartle is swept up and away.

The novel gave me a better understanding of some of what a
friend of mine who served in Iraq must have gone through. I will never know the
details, but now I can see why no one comes home from a war the same. It
changes everyone.

Powers is an Iraq War veteran. He served in the army in
Mosul and Tal Afar. He just received his M.F.A. in poetry from the Michener School
of Writing in Austin this year. This book stands up there with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Karl Marlantes Matterhornand Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. I look forward to reading more of his work."

From debut author Douglas Nicholas comes a haunting story of love, murder, and sorcery.

During
the thirteenth century in northwest England, in one of the coldest
winters in living memory, a formidable yet charming Irish healer, Molly,
and the troupe she leads are driving their three wagons, hoping to
cross the Pennine Mountains before the heavy snows set in. Molly, her
lover Jack, granddaughter Nemain, and young apprentice Hob become aware
that they are being stalked by something terrible. The refuge they seek
in a monastery, then an inn, and finally a Norman castle proves to be an
illusion. As danger continues to rise, it becomes clear that the
creature must be faced and defeated—or else they will all surely die. It
is then that Hob discovers how much more there is to his adopted family
than he had realized.

An intoxicating blend of fantasy and mythology, Something Redpresents
an enchanting world full of mysterious and fascinating characters—
shapeshifters, sorceresses, warrior monks, and knights—where no one is
safe from the terrible being that lurks in the darkness. In this
extraordinary, fantastical world, nothing is as it seems, and the
journey for survival is as magical as it is perilous.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

It's no secret that a lot of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are distressed with the state of politics and political discourse. The books for this post are meant to help look at how we got where we are and to examine a few key issues that seem intractable, but perhaps shouldn't be.

Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary
achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades,
the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas.

In his bestselling The New Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game,
he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us
across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of
landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As
only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting
with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political
rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then
until today.

This is a book full of surprises and
revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with
disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that
began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s
engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how
America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the
transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks
even beforethe housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth.

This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand
America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat.
Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the
public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why
moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street
often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials
as lobbyists.

Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling
the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as
Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such
as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans
such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine
Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo
Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the
American Dream have been undermined.

Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book The Price of Politics
is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the
highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States
Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the
federal government’s fiscal condition over three and one half years.

Drawn from memos, contemporaneous meeting notes, emails, and in-depth
interviews with the central players, The Price of Politicsaddresses
the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the
condition of the American economy and how and why we got there.
Providing verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, the book
shows what really happened, what drove the debates, negotiations, and
struggles that define, and will continue to define, the American future.

David Wessel, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter, columnist, and bestselling author of In Fed We Trust,
dissects the federal budget: a topic that is fiercely debated today in
the halls of Congress and the media, and yet is misunderstood by the
American public.

In a sweeping narrative about the people and the politics behind the
budget, Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year (which ended September 30)
to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget
process has grown wildly out of control. Through the eyes of key
people--Jacob Lew, White House director of the Office of Management and
Budget; Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office;
Blackstone founder and former Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson; and
more--Wessel gives readers an inside look at the making of our
unsustainable budget.

In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city
children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the
scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace,
and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their
fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into
adulthood.

For nearly fifty years Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his
readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children
for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy
nation. A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book
Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the
lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of
tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called “the
outcasts of our nation’s ingenuity.” But Jonathan is not a distant and
detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the
children who have trusted and befriended him.

Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than inFire in the Ashes,
as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of
age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some
of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early
years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant
determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we
watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and
contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for
themselves, but for our society.

The urgent issues that
confront our urban schools – a devastating race-gap, a pathological
regime of obsessive testing and drilling students for exams instead of
giving them the rich curriculum that excites a love of learning – are
interwoven through these stories. Why certain children rise above it
all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are
defeated by the time they enter adolescence, lies at the essence of this
work.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December
2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to a world
still reeling from the terrorist attacks of September 11. “Ladies and
Gentlemen,” proclaimed Annan, “we have entered the third millennium
through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we
see better, and we see further—we will realize that humanity is
indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations, or
regions.” Yet within only a few years the world was more divided than
ever—polarized by the American invasion of Iraq, the Arab-Israeli
conflict, the escalating civil wars in Africa, and the rising influence
of China.Interventions: A Life in War and Peace is the story of
Annan’s remarkable time at the center of the world stage. After forty
years of service at the United Nations, Annan shares here his unique
experiences during the terrorist attacks of September 11; the American
invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; the war between Israel, Hizbollah,
and Lebanon; the brutal conflicts of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia; and
the geopolitical transformations following the end of the Cold War. With
eloquence and unprecedented candor, Interventions finally reveals Annan’s unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.

The first sub-Saharan African to hold the position of
Secretary-General, Annan has led an extraordinary life in his own right.
His idealism and personal politics were forged in the Ghanaian
independence movement of his adolescence, when all of Africa seemed to
be rising as one to demand self-determination. Schooled in Africa,
Europe, and the United States, Annan ultimately joined the United
Nations in Geneva at the lowest professional level in the still young
organization. Annan rose rapidly through the ranks and was by the end of
the Cold War prominently placed in the dramatically changing department
of peacekeeping operations. His stories of Presidents Clinton and Bush,
dictators like Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe, and public figures of
all stripes contrast powerfully with Annan’s descriptions of the courage
and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and
better world.

Showing the successes of the United Nations, Annan also reveals the
organization’s missed opportunities and ongoing challenges—inaction in
the Rwanda genocide, continuing violence between Israelis and
Palestinians, and the endurance of endemic poverty. Yet Annan’s great
strength in this book is his ability to embed these tragedies within the
context of global politics, demonstrating how, time and again, the
nations of the world have retreated from the UN’s founding purpose. From
the pinnacle of global politics, Annan made it his purpose to put the
individual at the center of every mission for peace and prosperity.

A personal biography of global statecraft, Annan’s Interventions is as much a memoir as a guide to world order—past, present, and future.

Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was Ayn Rand's greatest
achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatizes her
unique philosophy through an intellectual mystery story that integrates
ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex.

Set in a near-future U.S.A. whose economy is collapsing as a
result of the mysterious disappearance of leading innovators and
industrialists, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human
life-from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy...to the
great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for
his own destruction...to the philosopher who becomes a pirate...to the
woman who runs a transcontinental railroad...to the lowest track worker
in her train tunnels.

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with
towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a
philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller.

Colorado senator Morgan Carroll brings us
an inside look at how state legislatures really work and how ordinary
citizens can make and change law and policy in their state and become
their own lobbyists. This hands-on guide includes practical tips, form
letters, documents, checklists, online content, and resources to empower
all citizens to help make government work for them. Take Back Your Government
is an accessible book that can teach anyone how to be an effective
advocate and a better-informed citizen and will give readers the ability
to push back the influence of paid lobbyists. This book will appeal to
people of all political persuasions.

Morgan Carroll is a Colorado state senator whose own civic
activism launched her ultimate decision to run for office. She is the
Colorado majority caucus chair, the chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, and a practicing attorney. Carroll has served in the Colorado
legislature since 2005, and she has conducted hundreds of town hall
meetings and community seminars teaching ordinary citizens how to make
and change laws.

The New York Times Magazine's original "Ethicist" Randy Cohen
helps readers locate their own internal ethical compasses as he delivers
answers to life's most challenging dilemmas—timeless and contemporary
alike. Organized thematically in an easy-to-navigate Q&A format, and
featuring line illustrations throughout, this amusing and engaging book
challenges readers to think about how they would (or should) respond
when faced with everyday moral challenges, from sex and love to
religion, technology, and much more. Sure to ignite brain cells and
spark healthy debate, Be Good is a book to refer to again and again.

The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of the Newbery Medal book When You Reach Me:
a story about spies, games, and friendship. Seventh grader Georges
moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, a
twelve-year-old self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer's first spy
recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the
apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts
to wonder: what is a lie, and what is a game? How far is too far to go
for your only friend? Liar & Spy will keep readers guessing until the end.

Monday, September 24, 2012

An ode to the art of traditional bookselling and independent bookstores,
this book offers lists of favorites that have flown under the radar,
but off of bookstore shelves. First published on Hans Weyandt’s blog
for Micawber’s Books, each check-list style contribution includes a
bookseller’s top fifty books, anecdotes, and interviews about the life
of being a bookseller, reader, and engaged citizen. Introduced by Ann
Patchett, the book exhibits the range and diversity of these
booksellers’ tastes and the stores in which they work. But it goes
beyond a typical book of lists to show how independent bookstores are
havens for readers where individual tastes, location, and personality
matter and where the staff provide an expertise and wisdom about readers
and books often lost in large and online retail spaces. One hundred
percent of royalties will go to the American Booksellers Foundation for
Free Expression (ABFFE).

Jackie says:"This book came to me at a very valuable time, a time when I'm exhausted
by trying to read the murky crystal ball that is the future of
publishing and bookselling while awaiting what could be a huge game
changing election depending on how the votes go. I've gotten lost in
the fear of it all. But this book, this tiny little book, has reminded
me of just how lucky I am, because my job is to read, talk about and
sell books. This book reminded me that this is my CAREER--it's not just
a job. And it's not just a career, it's a calling that is the truest,
best, most wonderful thing I've ever done and gotten paid for. As author and bookseller Ann
Patchett says in her introduction to the book:

'There is no
greater joy for a bookseller than introducing a reader to a book they
will love for the rest of their lives. Those of us in this business
are, after all, matchmakers at heart.

So consider this little book...a sort of catalogue of matchmakers.'

These
are lists, fifty titles long, from independent booksellers all over the
country, of their very favorite books to share with others. Each list
is prefaced with a bit about the stores they are from and their ideas
about books and bookish things. There is room built into the book for
your own list, and space to make notes as you read the lists. A extra
special thing about this book is that all the proceeds go to the
American Booksellers Foundations for Free Expression (ABFFE), a group
that fights literary censorship and supports struggling bookstores.

For
me, it reads like a bucket list of book stores I MUST see before I die.
I've got one down--Tattered Cover's got a list in there too. This is a
great book for any bibliophile anywhere."

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, a mesmerizing new novel from the award-winning author of The Secret Scripture

A first-person narrative of Lilly Bere’s life, On Canaan’s Side opens as the eighty-five-year-old Irish émigré mourns the loss of her
grandson, Bill. Lilly, the daughter of a Dublin policeman, revisits her
eventful past, going back to the moment she was forced to flee Ireland
at the end of the First World War. She continues her tale in America,
where—far from her family—she first tastes the sweetness of love and the
bitterness of betrayal.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Everyone’s favorite detective team
returns in a new adventure as canine narrator Chet and his human partner
P.I. Bernie Little find that Hollywood has gone to the dogs.

Hoping
to bring some Tinseltown money to the Valley, the mayor lures a movie
studio to town to shoot their next production, a big-budget Western in
the classic tradition. The star is none other than ruggedly handsome—and
notoriously badly behaved—Thad Perry. When the mayor decides that
someone needs to keep an eye on Thad so that he doesn’t get into too
much trouble, Bernie and Chet are handpicked for the job. The money is
good but something smells fishy, and what should have been a simple
matter of babysitting soon gets more complicated—especially when they
discover that Thad has a mysterious connection to the Valley that nobody
wants to talk about. What kind of secret could Thad have left behind
when he went to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune? The only people who
might know the answer have a bad habit of turning up dead before they
can talk.

As Bernie’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend
Suzie goes long-distance, and Chet’s late-night assignations appear to
have resulted in an unexpected dividend, it’s all our two sleuths can do
to keep Thad and his motley entourage of yes-men, handlers, and
hangers-on in their sights. Worst of all, Thad is a self-proclaimed cat
person, and his feline friend Brando has taken an instant dislike to
Chet.
Like the winning books before it, this fifth book in the
series combines a top-notch mystery with genuine humor and a perceptive
take on the relationship between human and dog that will stay with you
long after the case is solved.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves,
19-year-old James Hemings. The founding Father was traveling to Paris
and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose” – to master
the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation,
Jefferson would grant his freedom.

Thus began one of the
strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under
master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops
(especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in
American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as
pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a
host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the
fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure – and includes 12 of
their original recipes!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Scrabble aficionados may know that both “Brr” and “Brrr” are legitimate
plays, but what about everyday names like Peter, Carl, and Marge?
They’re not listed as proper nouns, but they are certainly playable. For
lovers of Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Words with Friends, this lively
guide helps readers make the most out of word games, packed with new
ways to remember the best words alongside tips for improving game play
and much more. Part strategy guide and part celebration of all things
wordy, this collection of facts, tips, and surprising lists of playable
words will instruct and delight the letterati.

Now is the time to tell the story of an ancient realm, a tragic
tale that sets the stage for all the tales yet to come and all those
already told...

It's a conflicted time in Kurald
Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this
ancient land was once home to many a power. and even death is not quite
eternal. The commoners' great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted
by his followers to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her
Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The
impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors
of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the
long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of
Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold...

Steven Erikson entered the pantheon of great fantasy writers with his debut Gardens of the Moon. Now he returns with the first novel in a trilogy that takes place millennia before the events of theMalazan Book of the Fallenand introduces
readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness. It is the epic story
of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in shaping the world of the
Malazan Empire.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped
off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly
thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie
palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and
rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle
Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the
Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."

When a
rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are
right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a
secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he
doesn't catch her first.

Heather says:

"The Diviners is my first experience with Libba Bray's writing (though I've been told that I must read the Gemma Doyle trilogy, which I certainly will now!), and I absolutely loved this book. When Evie causes a bit of a scandal in her boring midwestern home town, she is shipped off to her brilliant, eccentric uncle in New York City. This is nothing but good news to Evie, a free-spirited, fearless teenaged flapper, with a unique ability to 'read' people by handling objects belonging to them. She's a Diviner, but she doesn't know it or know anyone else with a similar skill. Soon Evie and her uncle, and a growing circle of friends drawn together by loneliness and loss (and some very interesting talents), are entangled in a gruesome murder mystery, with clear signs of a connection to the occult. 1920's New York is the perfect back-drop for this zany, creepy, fast-paced thriller ? and solving a series of horrific murders is apparently only the beginning of Evie and her new found family's fight against the forces of Evil. Libba Bray's new book is a brilliantly crafted novel, and thankfully only the first of the Diviners' hair-raising adventures."

Jackie says:

"I owe a debt to a co-worker (see above) for being relentless about convincing me to read this book--I shied away at its rather stout size, thinking of the stack of books I'd already collected. But she made a good case, and she was 100% correct--I LOVED this book, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Set in the 1920's in New York City, the time of speakeasies and flappers, jazz and, at least for Gemma and her uncle, murder. Her uncle is an expert in the occult, and he is asked to help the police find the killer who had carved occult symbols into a murder victim and left her on the river's edge. Gemma, never one to stay on the sidelines, accidentally discovers some occult powers of her own that may help her identify the killer, if he doesn't get to her first.

While technically a YA book, this is a great read for just about anyone who enjoys historic and/or atmospheric mysteries. And the best part--this is first book in a planned series."

When your porcupine feels prickly,
don’t assume that she is sickly.
Our vet told us not to worry:
porcupines are never furry.

Have you ever thought about the
right thing to say to a hippo or a shark? Do you know how mice like to
celebrate their birthdays? If you meet a ladybug who is really a
man-bug, what do you call him?

Animals big and small, soft and
slippery, wise and weird reveal their oddities in these poems and
paintings by Kathy DeZarn Beynette. You’ll giggle yourself silly as you
discover that it’s the peculiar and persnickety things about
creatures—including humans!—that make each of us so fascinating.

About that prickly porcupine: you know, some friends just aren’t supposed to be furry, and that’s okay.

Artist and children's author Kathy Beynette will be the headliner at a
"Meet the Author Storytime" with her adorable new children’s picture
book When Your Porcupine Feels Prickly. Twenty-two of
Beynette’s bright and joyous animal paintings are paired with poems
about the creatures portrayed. Sweetly hilarious and unfailingly kind,
the poems model good manners based on respect, empathy, and
compassion—gently imparted life lessons that extend naturally to the
human world and its inevitable quirks and foibles. Infused with the
artist’s passion for animals, art, and the written word, When Your
Porcupine Feels Prickly will be treasured by children and adults alike.